Chinese Con Artist Who Sold Access to Two Ex-U.S. Presidents Learns Fate

Using great props to fake credibility, a shameless Orange County mother-son con artist team convinced investors to hand them as much as $2 million in a scam involving speaking engagements for U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as well as former Vice President Al Gore.

After their 2011 federal indictments, Kuei Fuang Tsuei Hu and Jack Hu eventually admitted their guilt in the criminal plot and this week the mom received news of her punishment inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.

Hu, 63, had argued for a sentence of no more than 30 months of incarceration, but U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, who rejected government attempts to seal a portion of the case from public view, sentenced her instead to a term of 37 months.

Carter also ordered her and her 27-year-old son, who has not yet been formally sentenced, to pay more than $1,035,000 in restitution to victims.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento.